Times are tough right now. With everything that is going on in our country, the despair in everyone’s minds and hearts is palpable. You think that you are too small a part of this system to actually be able to help mend it. Can you do something? You wonder.
The answer is yes! Yes, you can do something.
Get vaccinated!
You can be a responsible citizen and get yourself vaccinated in any centre near you as soon as you get the chance. The vaccination drive has started for all adults in the age bracket of 18-44 years from the 1st of May and it is pertinent for all of us to get us and our loved ones vaccinated. Combat all the rumours that come your way and understand that misinformation can be our country’s biggest enemy and avoid a possible ‘infodemic’. Get your information from verified sources only.
In India, under the current vaccine drive, two types of vaccines are being given; Covishield and Covaxin. Both are equally effective but just work in different ways. While Covaxin contains inactivated viruses, which can not infect a person but still can teach the immune system to prepare a defence mechanism against the active virus, Covishield contains a chimpanzee adenovirus that has been modified to enable it to carry the COVID-19 spike protein into the cells of humans which is a cold virus and is basically incapable of infecting the receiver, but can still teach the immune system to prepare a mechanism against such viruses.
Both the vaccines have proven effective and one should not hesitate to take either of these.
However, even after the start of the vaccination drive, a lot of people in our country are confused about the procedure to get vaccinated. Here’s a simplified version -
Step 1: Get registered
Everyone should get themselves registered on the Co-WIN system developed by the central government using a photo identity proof (like Adhaar Card, Passport or Driving License)
Step 2: Vaccination details
On registration, you will get an SMS of your registered cellphone confirming the registration.
Step 3: Booking an appointment
Through the portal, you can find out the list of available CVCs and dates and time of available vaccination slots, to book an appointment as per your choice. The best time to look for a slot is 7am as most slots open up at this time. Though slots are almost always booked out, you can keep checking every couple of hours.
You will need an OTP verification prior to registration and a confirmation slip/token will be generated after registration. You will also get a confirmatory SMS later.
Please do register / book & guide your staff and your help at home who may not know how to navigate through the website or know where to get their free shots or about the camps set up to get vaccinated.
Step 4: Visit the center and get vaccinated
Pretty self explanatory eh?
Just ensure that you have your mask on and also that you get the vaccine on the arm that you don’t use for active work since the vaccine leaves a lingering pain for a day or two so it might be difficult to work with it.
Step 5: Sit back and relax
No really, it’s doctor recommended!
After getting vaccinated, you may or may not get a fever. Regardless, your body will be a little weak for 2-3 days after the vaccination as it will be busy creating antibodies for the small amount of virus that was injected in it so you should get adequate sleep and have healthy food after getting vaccinated.
On that note, it is important to state that having a fever after the vaccine is an absolutely normal side effect that can easily be tackled with your regular over-the-counter medication.
Easy right?
But wait, how does getting vaccinated help the country? Let us explain -
- Vaccine reduces risk of infection - Once you are vaccinated, your body creates antibodies (things that protect you from diseases) against Covid-19 which helps your body to get immune to the virus in the event of your exposure to it thus reducing your chances of getting infected.
- Vaccine protects against severe illnesses - Despite the fact that the current vaccines that we have do not provide a 100% protection against the virus, even then being vaccinated has been shown to be effective in preventing severe illness from Covid-19. So, even if you do get infected, if you are vaccinated, you’ll recover very easily.
- Vaccination may lead to herd immunity - Herd immunity refers to the protection from an infectious disease that occurs when a sufficient proportion of a population can no longer acquire or transmit infection, either through vaccination or immunity resulting from previous infection. Through herd immunity, the virus struggles to find susceptible hosts, and the chains of transmission break down, so even those who aren’t immune (for example, people who can’t receive a vaccine for health reasons) are protected. Achieving this will massively help our healthcare system which is currently crippling under the pressure of overwhelming Covid-19 cases.
- Vaccines will help us reconnect with friends and family - Once you have been fully vaccinated (i.e., received both the shots) and have waited the recommended amount of time, you can actually meet other people who too have been fully vaccinated or are at a very low risk of catching Covid-19 in person and without masks! Yes, it's possible!
- Vaccines will help us (eventually) ditch these masks - It seems like forever since we have gone out of our houses without masks. But if more and more people get vaccinated, we could eventually be able to ditch these masks and go back to how everything was before the pandemic.
Getting vaccinated is the biggest way in which we can help our country. But if you also want to help India in other ways and are looking for reliable sources to go through, we can help you with that. The Style Salad is proud to announce its collaboration with Dr. Gayatri Sharma, who has taken up an initiative of selling her own artwork, 100% proceeds of which shall be given towards Covid-19 relief for oxygen and beds.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shook the entire world like no other calamity has ever and we all know that the time that we are living in will go down in the books of history as an epidemic that left the entire world on a stand still. It is for us to write history. Getting vaccinated is right now the only way for the entire world to get over this pandemic and regain normalcy. Let’s remember that all of us are in this together and together we can get triumph over this virus.
Just remember the strong words of the WHO Chief, Mr. Theodros -
“This is a time for facts, not fear. This is a time for rationality, not rumours. This is a time for solidarity, not stigma.”
Stay safe and get vaccinated.
We are all in this together!